IF WE CONFESS OUR SINS, HE IS FAITHFUL AND JUST TO FORGIVE US OUR SINS AND TO CLEANSE US FROM ALL UNRIGHTEOUSNESS. ( 1 JOHN 1:9 )

Dear Charles, For our "Out of the mouths of Babe's" category, I received the following story this week. So let us set back and listen to a 6 year old child as she teaches us a valuable lesson. I hope you will enjoy this, and pause a moment to think about it as well.

Subject: A wonderful meaning of Rain

Rain: One rainy afternoon I was driving along one of the main streets of town, taking those extra precautions necessary when the roads are wet and slick.

Suddenly, my daughter, Aspen, spoke up from her relaxed position in her seat. "Dad, I'm thinking of something." This announcement usually meant she had been pondering some fact for a while, and was now ready to expound all that her six-year-old mind had discovered. I was eager to hear.

"What are you thinking?" I asked.

"The rain! ;" she began, "is like sin, and the windshield wipers are like God wiping our sins away.

After the chill bumps raced up my arms I was able to respond. "That's really good, Aspen." Then my curiosity broke in. How far would this little girl take this revelation? So I asked... "Do you notice how the rain keeps on coming?

What does that tell you?"

Aspen didn't hesitate one moment with her answer: "We keep on sinning, and God just keeps on forgiving us."

I will always remember this whenever I turn my wipers on. After all, In order to see the rainbow, you must first endure some rain. Amen.

New Brunswick's Opposition Conservatives say there's a big hole in the Liberal plan to improve the workings of elections and the legislature.

The provincial government Thursday delivered its official response to the Commission on Legislative Democracy, which was appointed under the Conservatives in 2004 and delivered its recommendations in early 2005.

"Our response to the Commission on Legislative Democracy outlines the first steps we are taking on a much longer journey," said house leader Stuart Jamieson.

But Jamieson said those steps will not include the commission's big-ticket recommendation — a referendum next year on whether some MLAs should be elected based on proportional representation, or the percentage of the popular vote parties receive.

"You missed the cornerstone here, and I think you need to be more responsive to allowing people to make the decisions you just made now," the Hampton-Kings MLA said.Continue Article

Jamieson told reporters electoral reform needs more careful consideration, but he also said the Liberals simply didn't like a system that includes proportional representation.

The Liberals are already moving on several ideas, like a ban on political parties topping up the salaries of ministers, and protection for bureaucrats who blow the whistle on government corruption. They say they'll also bring in measures to get more women to run for office, and set up a registry of consultants who lobby the government.

An investigation in Trinidad and Tobago has determined that a barge formerly owned by an Irving company was contaminated with PCBs when it arrived in the Caribbean, and officials want to know where the chemicals are now.

In Canada, the barge was known as the Atlantic Shark, and earlier as the Irving Shark. Now named the T-23, it is used as a water hauler in the Caribbean.

Environment officials in Canada expressed concerns that the barge was not cleaned of PCBs, or polychlorinated biphenyls, in its heat transfer coils before it was sold and allowed to leave for the Caribbean. When the government of Trinidad and Tobago learned of those concerns last December, it announced an investigation.

Trinidad's minister of works and transport, Colm Imbert, says inspectors discovered that the heat transfer coils were removed from the barge sometime after it arrived in the country.

"That is what we have to now investigate. Because it came with coils with PCBs in them, and now the coils have disappeared."

The vessel's new owner, a Trinidadian company called Coloured Fin, says the vessel is now clean, but has not provided details explaining where and how the chemicals were removed. Continue Article

PCBs are industrial chemicals that were used in the manufacturing of electrical equipment, heat exchangers, hydraulic systems and several other specialized applications up until the late 1970s. The Canadian government outlawed their import, manufacture and sale in 1977, and releasing PCBs into the environment was made illegal in 1985.

Canadian legislation has allowed owners of equipment laced with PCBs to continue using it until it's no longer serviceable. This policy allowed Irving to legally sell the barge without a full cleanup of the PCBs beforehand.

Mary Keith, a spokeswoman for Irving, issued a statement last year saying that the transaction was legal and that an intermediate broker it dealt with was fully informed of the vessel's environmental problems.

Minister Imbert says if the PCBs were removed and dumped in Trinidad, he will take legal action.

Petition from the Mohawk nation asking for your permission to stand up for the Land. For all people on this Earth. We are all in it together. Let Today be a Day of peaceful Action and Standing up for the Right for All Mankind to Live on this Earth with Respect, for her and how she sustains all of our Lives.

THE LORD IS GOOD, A REFUGE IN TIMES OF TROUBLE. HE CARES FOR THOSE WHO TRUST HIM! ( NAHUM 1:7 *NIV )

Dear Charles, We all face troubling times in our lives from time to time. We often wish that we could escape these troubles like the pain of grief, loss, sorrow and failure; or maybe even the small daily frustrations that constantly bother us.

When you are experiencing problems like that remember that: THE LORD IS CLOSE TO THE BROKEN HEARTED AND SAVES THOSE WHO ARE CRUSHED IN SPIRIT. ( PSALM 34:18 )

After all: THE EYES OF THE LORD ARE ON THE RIGHTEOUS AND HIS EARS ARE ATTENTIVE TO THEIR CRY. ( PSALM 34:15 ) For: THE RIGHTEOUS CALL OUT, AND THE LORD HEARS THEM; HE DELIVERS THEM FROM ALL THEIR TROUBLES. ( PSALM 34:17 )

Now you may be thinking how does that apply to me, for I do not feel very righteous. Well, through Jesus Christ we have become righteous, for it is written: GOD MADE HIM WHO HAD NO SIN TO BE SIN, SO THAT IN HIM WE MIGHT BECOME THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF GOD. ( 2 CORINTHIANS 5:21 ) Therefore when we repent of our sins they are not only cleansed from "The Book of Life," we also become righteous once again as well!

So Charles, remember the words of our Savior Jesus Christ, "DO NOT LET YOUR HEARTS BE TROUBLED. TRUST IN GOD; TRUST ALSO IN ME." ( JOHN 14:1 ) and let Him deliver you from all your troubles! For: A RIGHTEOUS MAN MAY HAVE MANY TROUBLES, BUT THE LORD DELIVERS HIM FROM THEM ALL. Amen! ( PSALM 34:19 )